


Other!Merlin and Other Stuff

by Shadow_Ink



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, But Just For A Little Bit, But also, Destiny being done with everything, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, I CANT PUT A TAG BECAUSE IT'LL BE SPOILERS, IT WILL GIVE YOU CAVITIES, JUST, M/M, Oblivious Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Pining, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, alternative universes, but anyway, except not, first of all CHAOS, he does have braincells, i don't know how to tag help, istg this has so much fluff, it is mutual, kinda humor-y I guess ?, lots and lots of fluff, married merthur, oh oh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:21:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Ink/pseuds/Shadow_Ink
Summary: Arthur shouts when the invisible force pushes him through the portal.Or, the one where Destiny got tired of the people running around like headless chickens and took things into it’s own hands(The stupid dragon was spreading misinformation.)
Relationships: I might add some other relationship tags, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 90





	1. Is it just me or this place is glowing ?

**Author's Note:**

> so, I wanted to finish this before posting it, but I am stuck, so i thought a bit of feedback would help ? I don't know

When he opens his eyes again he can see the castle’s familiar stone walls, he groans and sits up rubbing the back of his head, slowly gets up as to not aggravate the dizziness he feels. The place he is currently in might _look_ like the castle but it’s certainly _not_.

For a number of reasons, and those reasons are, one , Arthur grew up in the castle and knew every stone of every corner , two, he had just been forcibly shoved into a _portal_ which is something made out of _magic_ , and the final reason was, it felt different. Not necessarily a bad different, when he looked around the floors seemed cleaner, the stones smoother, the few decorations in the halls neater, but above all, it felt like a _home_. In all the years that Arthur lived in the castle there had always been something off, or missing, something cold and empty about the castle. But this. . . This version of it, Arthur could almost hear soft tinkling laughter echoing off of the walls, it exuded happiness.

He decides to cautiously make his way to his chambers, if they even are his chambers in this version of Camelot. He’s coming up the stairs to his chamber when a head of blond hair zooms past and trips right in front of him, landing on the floor with a small huff of air that was pushed out of their lungs. The small boy sits up on the floor and runs a hand through unruly blond hair with a small groan, and then startled dark blue eyes stare up at him from the floor. Arthur is unnerved by all the staring, specially since there’s something _awfully familiar_ about the strange boy, something about his eyes. . . and his ears.

“BENJAMIN!” a small voice yells from somewhere down the corridor as light running steps come in their direction, a girl, maybe 2 or 3 years older than the boy appears, she has shoulder length dark raven hair and defined cheek-bones, “Ben! Dad _told you_ , you can’t run away from court events! It doesn’t matter that you’re only second in line!” She says exasperatedly and plants her small hands on her hips, then her eyes lift up to where Arthur is on the stairs and she freezes, “Oh no” Her gaze whips back to the boy on the floor, who gives a helpless sort of gesture,

  
“Inith! Benjamin! Where are you both ?” A voice calls from the same direction the girl- Inith, came from, it sounds annoyed but with a hint of exasperated-fondness. A figure emerges from the corridor wearing a vivid blue tunic and dark trousers with boots, and it’s

  
“ _Merlin ?_ ” He chokes out, eyes going wide with shock, Merlin’s head whips in his direction, and indeed it _is_ Merlin, but not quite. This Merlin has longer hair, although it’s still a mess, and there’s a very faint hint of stubble on his face, he probably hadn’t had the time to shave today, it was almost unnoticeable to someone who doesn’t see the idiot’s face almost every single day, and he looks just as shocked to see Arthur as Arthur is to see him. They both stand there, Arthur on the steps at the stairs and Merlin on the corridor. The little boy from before, Benjamin, tugs at Merlin’s sleeve, pulling it over Merlin’s hand slightly, and when Merlin looks down the boy stands with both of his arms up and makes a grabbing motion with his small hands. Without hesitation Merlin bends down and picks the boy up settling him on his hip, he gently brushes the boy’s wild hair out of his eyes and the boy gives him a happy crooked grin, Merlin smiles back immediately, helplessly. He gently pushes Inith behind him and faces Arthur with a serious expression that is very unsettling , his eyes glow gold when he says,

  
“Who are you, and why do you look like Arthur.” Arthur splutters, and out of habit replies, ”Well who are _you_ and why do you look like my bloody manservant ?” he scowls. Merlin raises an eyebrow, not quite on level with Gaius’ eyebrow but still, “I’m the one asking questions,” he states calmly. Arthur scoffs, “I’m the _prince_ I don’t have to answer you,” there’s a tense pause where they stare each other down and then Other!Merlin minutely relaxes, re-adjusting Ben on his hip, and waits. Arthur squirms with 3 pairs of blue eyes staring at him and he finally breaks,

  
“ _Something_ pushed me through a portal and I ended up here,” He grits out, crossing his arms. Other!Merlin immediately relaxes and lets out a relief filled laugh,

  
“I know what happened to you, you’ll be back in your Camelot in a few days,” He gives Arthur a blinding grin, the same blinding grin _his_. . . well, the Merlin from his Camelot gives him, although Merlin tends to give him cheeky grins, not ones filled with affection and fondness, and yes, a bit of exasperation as well. Other!Merlin glances around cautiously before gesturing for Arthur to follow him, “Come with me, if the people find out there are 2 of you they will lose their minds,” Arthur hesitantly finishes climbing the steps in the stairs and follows Other!Merlin through the corridors, the same warmth seems to be everywhere in the castle, like the sun is reaching into the castle’s darkest places and chasing away the shadows. Other!Merlin is chattering away with the kids, Inith is skipping up ahead of him while Ben glances back at Arthur over Other!Merlin’s shoulder and proceeds to whisper in Other!Merlin’s ear, making him laugh while the boy giggled.

  
Other!Merlin pauses on his way to put Ben down, he whispers something to both the children and they nod at him with big grins before Inith grabs Benjamin’s hand and runs away down the hall. Other!Merlin smiles fondly at them as they thunder down the hall before he turns on his heels.

  
“Well,” he tucks his hands under his arms on his ribs, “if I remember correctly not a lot of people can know you’re here, _but_ ,” he sways back and forth on his feet “I’ll have to check with you… or other Arthur……my Arthur-“ He rambles on as he starts walking again and Arthur hastens to follow him, he’s sure he is in some kind of shock at the moment because he’d definitely be having some sort of breakdown at this point, be it emotional or mental.

They finally arrive at a wooden door, decorated with small golden symbols all around it, they look like _runes_. Arthur should definitely be losing his mind. Other!Merlin opens the door in and swiftly moves inside the room,

“This is my study, not a lot of people have permission to enter this room, and I can just tell them I’ve been working on something and they shouldn’t come here, so I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Other!Merlin’s voice sounds from the inside of the room,

 _Study ? Permission ?_ Arthur furrows his eyebrows and steps onto the room.

Arthur gapes at the room, it was covered in bits and baubles, glass bottles of varying sizes stood on the shelves, shelves that covered all the walls, besides the bottles with strange glowing liquids there were also herbs and flowers strewn about them, there are two large tables that seem to be made from oak wood in the middle of the room, the tabletops covered in open and closed books, some herbs and tools. On the furthest corner to the left there is a window that almost touches the ceiling _and_ the floor, covered by translucent curtains, under the window there was a small bedside table, the small bed besides the table was neatly made, it seemed to be the only unused part of the room,

“you can stay here until you get back to your own Camelot,” Other!Merlin said as he puttered about the room, elegant hands tidying up the tables first, that’s the one thing that always fascinated Arthur, how Merlin could be so clumsy and exude this odd sort of grace, maybe it had something to do with his features, sharp but somewhat gentle cheekbones, the curve of his nose, his soft lips,

“Arthur ?”

Arthur startles out of his thoughts to find Other!Merlin standing there, tables immaculate. He blinks back at Other!Merlin who gives him an amused smile in return,

“I asked if you’d be okay sleeping here ?”

Arthur looks back at the bed over by the window, it didn’t seem _terribly_ uncomfortable,

“I think I’ll be fine here,” Arthur knew that this could all go extremely wrong, but if he was unconscious somewhere and dreaming all of this up there wasn’t much he could do about it, and he _knew_ that this Merlin was _Merlin_ and not a product of some evil force, maybe it was foolish of him, but he could feel it in his bone marrow. He’d recognize Merlin in any place, at any time, even if he looked different. Like with Dragoon, he had his doubts, but in the end he just _knew_ , but he also knew Merlin wasn’t ready to tell him about his magic, he had time to be mad, _furious_ that his best friend had lied to him, but in the end it was _Merlin_ he could never be mad at Merlin for too long, so he made sure to be aware whenever Merlin left to deal with whatever magical threat was near Camelot at the time, so he could subtly make him rest, he smiles fondly at the memory of Merlin asleep halfway on the floor and halfway on his bed, he should have been mad, but at the time he had only sighed, gently picking Merlin off of the floor and placing him on the bed, and then pretending to not know Merlin had slept there later on, seeing Merlin panic about it had been hilarious nonetheless. 

And maybe he did look adorable with his hair mussed and his clothes wrinkled. Arthur was just happy to see his friend well-rested that’s all.

* * *

Other!Merlin had told him to stay put and wait for him to come back from important duties, which left Arthur to wonder what duties he was referring to, he was dressed similarly to Merlin, but the fabrics his clothes were made of seemed much more finer and expensive, maybe Other!Merlin was a noble. Arthur scoffs at the notion and then gets up to fiddle with the books laying around in attempt to distract himself of thoughts of Merlin wearing a crown matching his own.

The door creeks open and Arthur tenses, his hand going to his hip in an attempt to find the hilt of a sword that isn’t there, he curses under his breath.

But then, instead of a maid or guard, there are 2 children who sneak into the room and then close the door.

Benjamin turns around to face him and gives him a crooked smile while Inith sighs and rolls her eyes dramatically. Ben opens his mouth to speak but is cut off by his sister,

“No! You can’t tell him anything,” She scowls at him, face contorted in vague concern. Ben turns back to her and pouts,

“Does it really matter? Dad said it’s a loop, so technically this already happened before, anything that we do now has already been done, so we can’t change the You-Know-What,” he crosses his arms and raises his chin with a defiant expression,

“Ben you can’t risk changing things just because you think you’ll be able to make fun of Pa-,” she pauses, her eyebrows furrowed in thought as her eyes flit over to Arthur quickly before returning her gaze to her brother, “-of _The Knight_ for once, we could cease to exist!” She gestures with her hands while Benjamin makes an annoyed face,

“But I just _told_ you, Dad said it was a loop we aren’t _able_ to change anything,” He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at his sister who still looked concerned, but when she opened her mouth to retort Other!Merlin entered the room and gave them a stern look and cleared his throat followed by an expectant expression.

Ben and Inith look at each other before looking back at Other!Merlin, after a few seconds of a staring context they made their way out of the room shoving at each other and grumbling.

Other!Merlin sighs and watches the two children still arguing loudly while they half walk half run down the hall before he closes the door to the room and turn back to Arthur with a raised brow. Arthur frowns and looks down at his own hands, only now realizing he had one of the books that Merlin had put away earlier. He sheepishly puts the book back on the table, _where it was_ before _Merlin organized it._

Other!Merlin sighs with an eye roll before he walks over and snatches the book from the table and walks over to the shelves, his eyes skimming over all the books before he put the book in his hand back in it’s place.

“you must be wondering how you got here,” Other!Merlin turned around to look at Arthur,

“Well yes, obviously it was _magic_ , and from what I heard this is some kind of alternate reality ?” He looks at Other!Merlin for confirmation, who nodded at him while he looked at the shelves. Arthur narrowed his eyes at the avoidance of eye contact but let it go, most of the time when Merlin didn’t outright tell him things it was for his own protection, so he’ll trust him this once.

Other!Merlin turned to him with a serious look in his eyes, “You have to avoid being seen by anyone, it would cause a commotion and people might panic” he fidgets a bit with his hands, which is something so _Merlin_ that it startles him slightly, the realization that the man in front of him _is_ Merlin, even if from a different universe, he is what Merlin could be. Arthur doesn’t really know how similar this universe is to his own, maybe it’s completely different, maybe it’s almost identical, but of one thing he is certain, magic isn’t currently outlawed which means he lifted the ban on magic after his father. . . stepped down from the throne, or that his father never banned magic to begin with, but either way Other!Merlin is freely using magic around the castle. Arthur watches as Other!Merlin moves around the room his hands hovering over things occasionally before he moves one, he seems _lighter_ compared to Merlin in a way, as if the weight of the world isn’t only his to bare on his own. Other!Merlin finally stops near the door and turns back to Arthur, his hands resting lightly against his forearms,

“If you need anything just knock on the door 3 times, it’ll send me a message of sorts and I’ll know that you called,” he stops for a bit and bites his lower lip before nodding, he turns back to the door to leave,

“Wait! If this is where you sleep then where will you sleep ?” Arthur was well aware that Other!Merlin didn’t sleep in this room, the bed, as he noticed before, seemed to be the only untouched thing in the room,

Other!Merlin gives him a cheeky grin, “I have my own chambers now,” he seems all too happy to tell Arthur that as he practically skips out of the room, closing the door after him.

Arthur sighs and goes to sit on the bed, at least he _ha_ s a bed, even if it isn’t his usual one, considering that he went through a damn portal and ended up in an alternate reality, this isn’t as bad as it could’ve been. He sighs again before he lays down.

It’s going to be a long few days.

* * *

Arthur woke up to someone poking his face. He swatted he hand away,

“go ‘way _Mer_ lin,” he grumbles and turns his face onto the pillow. He expects to have the covers pulled away and maybe a way too cheery ‘rise and shine’ but instead he hears childish giggling, his eyes snap open and standing in front of him are Ben and Inith, Ben has a cheeky-crooked-grin and Inith is also grinning, her eyes crinkling in the corners. So she wasn’t worried anymore apparently. He raises an eyebrow at them and they giggle again,

“They aren’t that different,” Ben suddenly says, turning to his sister who shrugs,

“I’m sure there are major differences from our knight,” she decides, nodding, while Ben hums,

“Are you two allowed to be in here ?” Arthur speaks up and both children look over at him with a mischievous glint in their eyes, “I’m going to take that as a no then,” Arthur decides with a sigh, he sits up on the bed and grimaces when he notices he slept on the clothes of the day before,

“so where are your parents then ?” Ben and Inith look at each other and then back at him and start to fidget,

“uh well, they’re…discussing some things right now,” Inith starts,

“Your arrival caused a bit of a ruckus this week,” Benjamin blurts before his sister slaps a hand over his mouth and gestures sharply, making Ben scowl back at her and gesture with his own hands, although he doesn’t try to remove his sister’s hand from where it’s still clamped over his mouth. Arthur clears his throat.

“Well, anyway, they’re busy this week,” Inith gestures vaguely to where Arthur is standing, “That’s why you’re here,”

Then it suddenly clicks in his mind,

“wait wait, _Merlin_ is your father ?!” Arthur sputters, and immediately they both make panicked expressions and look at each other, Inith’s hand still over Ben’s face. He pulls her hand away,

“Well, no, he is our Dad, we don’t call him _father_ ,” Ben’s eyebrows do a complicated dance that ends up with one of his brows up. Inith sighs next to him.

“Well I don’t really know if you were supposed to find that out but, Dad _did_ tell us that everything that happened here has already happened before, kind of ?” Her brow creases in confusion and, admittedly, it _is_ kind of adorable and it reminds him vaguely of Merlin, she sighs again, exaggerating her exasperation, “it’s really confusing” she shakes her head,

“Well, didn’t your _Dad_ tell you you weren’t supposed to come here ?” Arthur raises one eyebrow at them, and stubbornly ignores the vague constricting feeling he feels in his chest at the thought of Merlin having kids with someone, _at least he still lived in the castle_ , he probably spent the majority of his time with his family and doing his duties, maybe he barely even talked to Arthur anymore, maybe-

“You okay ?” Ben’s voice pipes up, breaking Arthur out of his reverie, “your eyes went all sad,” Arthur makes a vague gesture that means silence, or he hopes that’s what the others get,

“I’m fine, just thinking” he immediately gets twin mischievous grins from the siblings. Arthur raises his eyebrow in question,

“Dad always says, ‘careful not to hurt yourself’, when you say you’re thinking,” Ben explains, amusement clear in his eyes, also very similar to Merlin’s amused expressions. Arthur smiles back at them.

“so,” Arthur starts, sitting up from the bed, “what do you two do for fun around the castle ? Have you found all the secret spots ?” Inith and Ben trade looks before shaking their heads. Arthur grins, “well come on then,” He gets up and dusts his pants as if they were dirty. Inith and Ben grin right back before following him out of the room.

Arthur leads them through all the hidden passageways he remembers from his own childhood, the ones he explored when he wasn’t training, the one that leads to the kitchen that he used to go through to steal snacks without Audrey knowing, the one that led to the stables so he could say hi to the horses, he smiles when the horses at the stables lower their heads to greet the siblings with soft snuffling sounds,

“I’m too small to ride the horses without help,” Ben frowns and Inith walks over to him to place a hand on his head with a small smile,

“you’ll be able to do it on your own eventually, like me,” Ben gives her a small smile back before he shoves at her and runs away laughing, she lets out a sputtered laugh before running after him.

Arthur smiles at little, remembering how he and Morgana used to be as kids, although they fought with swords instead of just plain playing around. Arthur doesn’t let his smile waver and goes to follow them out of the stable, he sees them go to the courtyard where some knights are training, he recognizes Gwaine and Percival that were on apparent break as they wave to Ben and Inith with laughs of their own. Arthur pauses and looks at the other knights more closely, there’s Leon over-seeing a sparring match between Elyan and Lancelot, he frowns slightly wondering where the other him is.

Just as he is thinking about it another man stumbles into the courtyard, familiar blond hair that he sees in the mirror occasionally mussed, the knights laugh at him and Arthur can vaguely hear them shouting back and forth,

“Busy with the Lady Hawk!?” Gwaine yells over at the Other!Arthur who laughs back,

“If he hears you saying that you’ll be a rat for a week, _again_!” he hears Other!Arthur say and frowns slightly in confusion, Gwaine visibly shudders and looks around nervously while the other knights laugh at him(it was an accident the first time).

Other!Arthur has slightly longer hair and some stubble, not completely neat like Arthur himself, there’s something about the way he moves around the knights talking and giving advice that makes Arthur feel a bit hopeful that he won’t make an absolutely terrible king after all.

He almost punches Other!Merlin when he appears behind him, but Other!Merlin stops him with a flash of golden eyes and a raised eyebrow. It makes Arthur feel oddly guilty, like when Audrey caught him stealing pastries that one time.

“Aren’t you supposed to be staying in the study ?”

Arthur sighs and feels his shoulders slump as he starts making his way back to the study, Other!Merlin following him closely.

He couldn’t stay cooped up in the damn study for however many days it took for him to get back to his Camelot, the only time he had to stay confined within the castle walls was when a really bad snowstorm hit Camelot, it had been hard for everyone specially food wise. Back then he was no more than 7 years old, and he still had access to the rest of the castle so at least he could go to the library and bother Geoffrey into showing him the books about adventurers.

He enters the study and flops face first into the bed, a snort on the other side of the room follows,

“that’s very princely of you _sire,_ ” Ah there it is, in all his 23 years of life Merlin was the only person he met who managed to make a title sound like an insult, apparently that applied to other universes as well. Arthur sits up and glares at Other!Merlin who is leaning against one of the tables in the middle of the room with his arms crossed loosely,

“You’re actually taking all of this really well I mean, the whole, alternative universes, me being a sorcerer, magic being legal-” Other!Merlin stops listing exactly all the things that Arthur is supposed to be freaking out about with a slightly guilty expression,

“I may possibly be in shock.” Arthur raises his eyebrows and then proceeds to lay back down, half his face smooched in the pillow, “and there is no use in getting worked up about all of this if I’ll go back to my Camelot in a few days time, and also” at this he gives a pointed look at Other!Merlin “you refuse to tell me anything about this place,” Other!Merlin purses his lips together as his brows furrow,

“It’s not that you can’t know _anything,_ it’s just that I don’t know how much you can know, and if or how it would affect my current Camelot,” Arthur can see where he’s coming from, since he spends most of his time trying to protect Camelot and making sure her people are happy and healthy, he sighs and rubs the part of his face who _isn’t_ smooched in the pillow with a hand, when he blinks one eye open Other!Merlin is looking at him with an unreadable look, it’s almost. . . _loving._

Arthur scoffs at his own thoughts and rubs his face on his pillow, _as if_ , he thinks, _Merlin wouldn’t_.

“I’ll try and make you a disguise,” Other!Merlin sighs, “But you can’t, and I repeat _can’t_ go snooping around okay ?” Other!Merlin makes a very serious face, Arthur isn’t sure he ever saw Merlin do such an expression before, not to this degree.

Arthur scowls a little but nods in agreement, after nodding back Other!Merlin leaves the room, presumably to make Arthur the disguise he mentioned.

* * *

Other!Merlin sighs, having Arthur around was harder than he thought, when his Arthur had actually told him the story he’d been in a bit of shock, maybe a lot of shock, at least he didn’t faint. With Arthur taking up his study he has to work on Arthur’s ‘disguise’, which was composed of really finicky magic, he could disguise himself fairly easy, exhibit A Dragoon The Great, exhibit B The Dolma, but making a disguise for _someone else_ was a whole other problem.

The door is opened gaudily and Other!Merlin smiles automatically at the sound, Other!Arthur’s training sword clangs loudly when he places it against the wall and proceeds to struggle with the buckles in his armor. Other!Merlin lets him for a while before he sighs and carefully places the ingredients he was using down, at the time he’s only sorted them, so, no time-sensitive potions need to be watched over. He turns around and makes his way to Other!Arthur who’s still busy struggling, Other!Merlin bats his hands away gently before he undoes the buckles easily, helping a pouting Other!Arthur to lift the armor off. Other!Merlin kisses his pout away and gives him a bright smile,

“I’ve been placing and removing your armor for years of course I can do it faster than you,” he pecks Other!Arthur’s lips again before he moves back to the tables with the ingredients, sorting them out by when he’ll need to use them.

Other!Arthur plasters himself to Other!Merlin’s back and wraps his arms around his waist, resting his chin over Other!Merlin’s shoulder.

“Agh, go away you prat,” Other!Merlin tries to dislodge him, “you’ve been training for hours, you smell _foul,_ ” Other!Arthur snorts, placing a kiss on the side of Other!Merlin’s neck,

“At least I don’t smell like old dusty books,” Other!Merlin can feel his smile where it’s pressed against his neck, feels the corresponding one appear on his own face,

“Well I’m having to deal with _You_ , the one who still is extremely emotionally constipated, now you’re only a bit emotionally-constipated,” Other!Arthur makes an affronted noise and nips at his neck, making Other!Merlin yelp and swat at his face, “I haven’t said anything that isn’t true,”

Before Other!Arthur is able to retort two small blurs bang the door open as they run inside, wooden swords clashing briefly before they turn to look at their parents,

“Why can’t we tell young Papa about things,” Inith pouts at her dads,

“He makes funny faces when we talk about things,” Ben adds, making Other!Merlin look at him sharply, he yelps and hides behind his older sister,

“Don’t worry Da we didn’t tell him anything,” Inith nods to herself, with a proud tilt to her chin that is reminiscent of Arthur, “Well Benjamin almost did with his loud mouth, but I stopped him,” She grins smugly at her brother who shoves at her with a frown,

“I don’t remember much of what happened when I came here,” Other!Arthur humms, now next to Other!Merlin with his arm now draped loosely around his waist, “I remember finding out that I was, apparently-”

“Completely oblivious to the fact that you were in love with me, yes,” Other!Merlin interrupts with a cheeky tone, Arthur scowls at him,

“Well you weren’t aware of the fact either so I’m not sure you can judge,” Other!Merlin wraps one arm around Other!Arthur’s neck and pulls him closer, planting a kiss on his cheek,

“At least I knew I was in love with you from the very beginning,”

Other!Arthur scoffs,

“And you still chose to be an a-” Other!Merlin clamps a hand over his mouth,

“children in the room,” Other!Arthur looks at said children who are giggling uncontrollably, he smiles helplessly at them. Other!Merlin glances out of the window briefly before clapping his hands loudly, the room neats itself a little,

“Alright family, time for food, let’s head on down,” Ben immediately pokes Inith who grins,

“first one to the dining hall gets all the dessert!” she shouts before running out of the door, Ben on her heels,

Other!Merlin sighs at them and shakes his head with a bright grin on his face, only cut off when Other!Arthur plants a kiss on his lips, his grin widens,

“You heard Inith,” He mumbles against Other!Arthur’s lips before he too takes off running, Other!Merlin laughs as he hears Other!Arthur’s footsteps running after him, he runs down the corridor faster, with a last echoing in the hall of,

“ _MER_ LIN”

* * *

Arthur looks up from the book he was currently reading when there was a knock on the door, Other!Merlin quickly entering the study,

“Hey, I brought you supper,” Other!Merlin lifts the plate in his hand slightly before moving to one of the tables in the middle of the room. Arthur moves over as well setting the book down, the food smells delicious, and he _had_ been getting hungry, there is some chicken breast nicely cut, probably Audrey’s work, what seem to be cut potatoes and some vegetables as well,

Other!Merlin clears his throat and leans against the table,

“The crops are much more manageable with magic around, so, there’s plenty of food, and good one at that,” Arthur looks up at him with a scrutinizing gaze. Other!Merlin shifted where he stood, turning the ring on his ring finger absent-mindedly and looking down at it and then away at the window,

“are you trying to tell me that magic isn’t all bad ? Because, I figured that out a while ago,” Arthur pops one of the small berries in his mouth and squints his eyes slightly,

Other!Merlin gapes at him,

“I don’t know when exactly you told your-uh, the Arthur from your Camelot, that you had magic, ” Arthur pauses, taking a bite of the chicken before continuing, “but, I figured out that you had magic pretty early on, I mean, you do magic in front of me all the bloody time,” Arthur huffs indignantly and raises his eyebrows pointedly at Other!Merlin who blushes with embarrassment,

Arthur humms,

“So you _did_ do that as well,” Arthur snorts,

“My Arthur did find out on his own without me telling him as well. . . But I was planning to!” He defends, raising his chin up,

Arthur raises his eyebrows again,

“I was! I swear,” He frowns a little, “He was very calm about it, I think I was in shock,” Other!Merlin chuckles,

Arthur humms and wonder how his- the Merlin from his Camelot would react to him talking about his magic, would he get shocked as well ?Arthur frowns at the possibility of Merlin being scared of telling him, he always assumed that maybe Merlin needed some time, maybe trust Arthur a little more,

“By the way, I’ve started to work on your disguise so it should be ready by tomorrow at noon.” Other!Merlin interrupts his reverie sighing fondly, “If _someone_ stops interrupting me while I am working,” He grins slightly twisting the ring on his ring finger.

Arthur clears his throat when it closes up a little,

“Your wife ?” He grimaces when his voice comes out hoarse and scratchy,

“No my-” Other!Merlin stops and bites his lip his eyebrows scrunching together in a frown, he seems to debate with himself before he finally decides, “My husband,”

Arthur sputters and then gapes a little, which is a little undignified for someone who grew up being taught about manners and being proper and all but,

“But, the kids-, I mean they’re _clearly_ your kids,” He sputters some more when Other!Merlin lets out a laugh, and with a shrug, he answers,

“Magic.” Arthur continues gaping at him, making aborted gestures with his hands,

“What do you _mean_ magic ?”

“To be completely honest, I’m not sure how that happened either, me and A-My husband,” great save “say it was a magical stork,” He grins sheepishly, “or destiny,” his grin widens into a cheeky one and Arthur scoffs, rubbing at his chest, unconsciously trying to get rid of the pain there.


	2. Haha Gottem'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> well, there you go, this a short one my dudes

Arthur frowns while looking through the small window in the study room, turning his mother’s ring while he tries to figure out who exactly it is that Merlin married in this reality and if they’re present in his Camelot.

He sighs turning back around, a frown firmly placed on his face. Ben was blond, and both Inith and Ben have blue eyes, so definitely someone with blue eyes and blond.

“Oh! You’re already up,” Other!Merlin enters the study and carefully places a plate full of food on the table, “you were out and about yesterday,”

“I was watching the knights train since I couldn’t train myself,” Arthur shrugs moving over to where the food is and sitting down. Other!Merlin chuckles,

“Well for what is worth you never stopped training,” He mentions amusedly and a little exasperated,

“I’m not sure you can speak for _me_ since, you know, different realities,”

Other!Merlin’s eyes widen momentarily before he lets out a nervous sounding laugh,

“I mean the differences between your reality and mine are pretty minor, so,” He shrugs and turns the ring on his finger a few times, Arthur looks down at the ring and falters. His eyes slowly turn back to his own hand, where his mother’s ring is.

The rings are identical.

“You’RE MARRIED TO ME?!” Arthur’s voice cracks with how shocked he is,

“NO! I mean, yes! But-” Other!Merlin looks around helplessly and makes some vague gestures with his hands in what he probably hopes are some form of explanation,

They stand there gawping at each other for at least 3 minutes,

“Merlin! idiotic love of my life, Horus is asking for y-” Other!Arthur stops halfway through the door his mouth still hanging open. The three of them look back and forth before Other!Merlin lets out a deep sigh and walks over to Other!Arthur carefully holding onto the dark-haired toddler and resting him against his hip, Other!Merlin frowns a little and picks a leaf off of Horus’ hair, he directs a judgmental frown at Other!Arthur who makes an apologetic face back,

“Have you been playing outside all this time ?” Other!Merlin looks down at the dark haired boy,

“I found a rabbit,” He looks up at Other!Merlin with a grin identical to Merlin’s,

Other!Merlin gives him an amused sigh before ruffling his hair,

“Well now you need a bath mister,”

“But I’m not even that dirty!” He pouts up at Other!Merlin before raising his arms to Other!Arthur who promptly takes hold of him, “Papa won’t make me take a bath,” he decides,

Other!Merlin raises his eyebrow at both Horus and Other!Arthur. Horus gives him a cheeky grin while Other!Arthur makes a panicked face,

“I’ll go uh….Go and give him a bath while you solve, this,” He gestures between Other!Merlin and Arthur with the hand that isn’t holding Horus. Other!Merlin sighs and smiles at them both, fond and loving.

“Maybe you should take one too,” Other!Merlin gently lifts his hand and rubs a thumb over the smudge of dirt on Arthur’s cheek, he laughs when the motion causes a rasping sound, “Maybe a shave too,”

Other!Arthur smiles at him, completely love struck, he looks almost breathless as if he can’t believe that Other!Merlin is there in front of him. His smile widens to a grin and he turns his face into Other!Merlin’s hand, his hair falling slightly over his face. Other!Merlin grins back at him and darts forward to peck his lips before shooing him out of the room.

Arthur is still gaping at the scene like a fish out of the water when Other!Merlin turns around to face him with a resigned face,

“Guess I owe you an explanation,” He tries,

“A hell of an explanation at that,” Arthur grouches before he goes to lean against one of the tables in the middle of the room, with the food still untouched.

“Well, I’m going to start from the very beginning of all this mess,” He fiddles with the ring on his finger again, “First of all, this isn’t _really_ an alternate reality, it’s a, um,” Other!Merlin clears his throat, ”It’s a time loop of sorts,”

Arthur blinks at him,

“My Arthur is technically speaking, _you¸_ as in, he went to the future when he was younger, just like you are doing now, and when _you’re_ older, a younger Arthur will appear eventually,” He frowns, “I don’t know if that makes much sense to yo-””wait you’re telling me that _I’m marrying my Merlin eventually?_ ” Other!Merlin stares at him incredulously,

“That’s all the you got from the whole time loop thing ? Are you serious ?” Other, or really Future!Merlin sounds very amused by this. Arthur sputters and gestures with his hands before crossing his arms and sputtering some more, his cheekbones and ears steadily getting redder. Future!Merlin laughs and ruffles his hair,

“I’m never going to let you live this down,” He gives Arthur a cheeky grin,

“So,” Arthur clears his throat, ”what you’re telling me is, ‘young me’ keeps going to the future over and over again, but eventually I grow older and meet said ‘younger me’ ?” Arthur tubs at his temples trying to get rid of the forming headache,

“Yeah pretty much, you’re going to be going back to your time in a few hours,”

Arthur’s stomach drops. He’s going back to his time. His time, where Uther is still alive, where magic is illegal, where he and Merlin aren’t together.

“How am I- How-, how am I supposed to, to make this future happen I-”

Future!Merlin puts his hands on Arthur’s shoulders,

“Hey,” he says softly, “You’ll figure it out, and you’ll have younger me there with you through everything, if you have any doubts you can always talk to him, I know he will do his best to give you council,”

Arthur swallows and looks over Future!Merlin’s face, looking over all the small differences he can count. The barely there stubble, the longer hair, there was a small scar on the left side of his chin. Arthur takes a deep shuddering breath. Future!Merlin gives him a reassuring smile before he pulls Arthur into a firm hug with such force that air leaves Arthur’s lungs.

Future!Merlin pulls away until holding onto his shoulder to give him another smile, a more tender one,

“I believe in you, I always have,”

There’s a whooshing sound behind Arthur and he turns abruptly, some papers that were sitting in one of the table flutter around and fall on the floor haphazardly,

“Well, guess it’s time for you to go, it was fun seeing your baby face again,” Future!Merlin gives him a cheeky grin. Arthur scowls at him and looks back at the glowing portal, he swallows back the lump on his throat and takes a deep breath,

“Okay, I can do this, jump into the mysterious portal of unknown origi-”

Future!Merlin pushes him into the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sO, There's some unplanned things in this chapter that just came to me at the time, AND I HAVE A BETTER IDEA OF HOW I'M GONNA CONTINUE THIS,  
> Updates are slow cuz I have no idea what the hell I'm doing so,  
> I also write when inspiration hits so its like  
> Me: **spends 4/5 weeks without writting anything**  
> Also me: **Writes 3000 words in 1 day**


	3. Oh no

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM, SO SORRY FOR TAKING THIS LONG, this isn't even that long, I wanted to make a big update but I had been very stressed with school and then I decided to take a time to rest a little bit, but my creativity decided to leave me so ;-; anyway I'm really sorry for the delay, SORRY FOR ANY SPELLING MISTAKES AS WELL

Merlin frantically paces Arthur’s chambers. It’s spotless, no random clothes strewn about, no mud tracked to the floor that Merlin had just cleaned, no rumpled sheets on the bed even though, again, Merlin had made the bed, not even armor to polish.

Merlin wrings his hands together, pops the joints in his fingers, paces some more. He’s been looking for Arthur for 9 days and he’s running out of options. He _did_ run out of options, the king is livid and blaming sorcery again! He’d tried every tracking spell he could find that seemed even remotely useful, every _single one of them_ and nothing, Arthur was nowhere to be found, although Merlin did try the spells in a haste, maybe he missed something and messed the spells up. Merlin leans against the wall and slowly slides down until he’s sitting on the floor, with his knees pulled up to his chest. He could hear his own heart beating in his ears and his erratic breathing and his vision blurred slightly, he didn’t notice the tears at first,

“Merlin!”

“Merlin look at me, hey-”

Merlin looks up from his knees, blinking away the water in his eyes.

“Merlin, what happened, are you okay ?” Arthur’s face gets into focus in front of his face and Merlin let’s out a shuddering breath before he punches Arthur’s shoulder, making him lose his balance while crouching. Merlin gets up and grips his own hair before turning around and helping Arthur up and wrapping his arms around Arthur’s neck tightly,

“Mer _lin, I need to breathe too-_ ”

“ _Where have you been ?! I’ve been looking for you for almost 10 days!_ ” Merlin pushes him away at arm’s length and stares at his face, scanning for any kind of injury, besides looking dazed and a bit confused Arthur looks fine. Merlin’s hands flit from Arthur’s shoulders to his face, tilting Arthur’s face this and that way, he stops when Arthur’s hands come up to gently hold onto his wrists,

“I’m okay Merlin, I’m fine,”

“Well excuse me, but the prince of Camelot disappeared and the whole castle is afraid to even breathe near Uther in case he decides they were the sorcerer that made you disappear in the first place!” Now Merlin doesn’t get _really_ angry easily but really, Arthur disappearing without so much as telling him he was safe first set him on edge, because knowing Arthur he’d probably gone in some stupid heroic mission and this time, Merlin wasn’t there to save his royal prattiness.

“You were worried about me!” Arthur points out with a smug grin,

A grin that slowly disappears as Merlin turns to him with a furious expression. Arthur takes a step back and raises his hands up in a placating manner,

“Listen, I can explain, it wasn’t my fault this time!”

Merlin raises an eyebrow

“Okay so maybe I did fall into a portal but-”

“you _what_?”

“I’m fine! I didn’t get hurt I was just sent somewhere else, but it was a safe place,”

Merlin turns to him completely and crosses his arms, waiting.

Arthur tries to explain to him exactly what happened(well, not _everything_ ) to the best of his abilities which, it’s pretty hard he isn’t sure he’ll ever completely understand what happened and where the portal came from, but apparently it _wasn’t harmful in anyway Merlin I’m fine, no it did not cause me mental afflictions_. Merlin still seems wary about what happened but he lets it go.

Merlin tells him how the kingdom’s been since he disappeared to the future for a while, and apparently other than the fact that the crown-prince disappeared nothing was too much out of the ordinary except a very angry Uther, but then again, Uther was always angry for one reason or other.

After they discuss everything that needed to be discussed they head to the library so that they can rest for a while, and Arthur is grateful that he’s finally back in his own time, where he gets to spend time with Merlin like this, one of the few moments where it doesn’t feel like the weight of the entire kingdom rests on his shoulders.

* * *

Arthur has been acting weird, now normally Merlin would know _why_ Arthur is acting weird, if Arthur doesn’t tell him it’s some other magical problem that has arisen but the problem is, Arthur went to the future, _all on his own_. There’s no way for him to know what could’ve gone wrong while he was there, or even if he was actually there, he had told Merlin about it in the vaguest way possible.

Merlin frowns as yet again when he doesn’t find Arthur in his chambers, nor was he training with the knights. He sighs and goes to fetch the prince’s lunch but freezes outside the door.

“No! Be careful you’ll burn your hands my lord,” That was Audrey’s voice,

“Why is baking a pie so bloody difficult!?” and that would be _Arthur’s_ voice

Merlin raises an eyebrow, Merlin was always the one cooking for the knights when they were off, and always the one fetching the prince’s food when they were at the castle, so why would Arthur be trying to bake a pie?

* * *

“Merlin! There you are, I have been looking for you,” Merlin turns to Arthur and raises one eyebrow, he slowly finishes folding the tunic he had in his hands before turning his torso towards Arthur,

“you do realize I’ve been here probably the entire time right ?” Arthur scoffs at him and puts a hand on Merlin’s back, guiding him away from the clothes he had been previously folding,

“Go change into something more comfortable, we are going on a picnic!” He announces with a crooked grin that makes Merlin’s heart skip a few beats.

“A picnic ? And who exactly are you taking to a picnic ?” Merlin would suspect Gwen if he didn’t already know she was infatuated with someone else, and that whatever had been between Arthur and her ended in a strong friendship instead.

“You of course” Arthur kept on smiling,

_Oh god he has been enchanted again,_ Merlin sighs,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
> you can always comment and/or leave a kudos! :)


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